Editorial: The state gambles on addiction

Friday

Aug 24, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 24, 2007 at 10:59 PM

An increase in the tax rate would be a more honest way for the state to raise revenue.

The MetroWest Daily News

Addiction, whether to drugs, alcohol or gambling, ruins the lives of the addicted and everyone around them. Just last week, an Everett woman was shot to death, allegedly by her ex-husband, in an argument supposedly fueled by her addiction to lottery scratch tickets.

Unlike a person with an addiction to illegal drugs, Dottie Philbrook was able to feed her obsession at any corner store in any community in Massachusetts. Lottery tickets are a booming business for the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission.

In the last fiscal year, the sale of instant scratch tickets brought in $3 billion to the state. That is in addition to the $775 million raised by Keno, and $334 million raised through The Numbers Game.

Just as it is with slot machines so popular at casinos, it's all about instant gratification. One pull of the lever, one scratch of the number, and lives are changed forever - at least that's the hope of those spending their money on a dream.

The real winner in all cases is the "house" - the casino owners and, dare we say, the state treasury.

Treasurer Tim Cahill points to the millions of dollars distributed to local communities because of the state lottery. But at what cost?

Statistics show that if all the money spent in the last year on lottery tickets in Massachusetts were divided among all residents, each would have spent $700. Divide the total according to community and that number is significantly higher for some towns. Salisbury, for instance, sold $28 million in lottery products last year, $3,425 per resident. How much did Salisbury receive in state lottery aid? A total of $626,191.

Framingham stores had lottery sales of $39 million. It received in return $3.2 million. Bellingham outlets sold $18 million, and got back just $1.7 million. Southborough lottery outlets sold $4 million in tickets and the town received a paltry $430,000 in return.

In almost all cases, significantly more money was spent on sales in each community than was returned by the state. It just doesn't add up.

A good portion of lottery proceeds pay for the cost of running the lottery, of course. Advertising is expensive, and the Massachusetts Lottery advertises extensively in its efforts to separate gullible taxpayers from their money. "You can't win if you don't play," say the ads, and that's true.

And, of course, the lottery pays its winners, big and small.

But it seems that, in efforts over the years to keep taxes down, the state has become addicted to gambling as a major source of revenue, and the increasingly favorable support for a casino in Massachusetts supports that stance.

Legislators gambled and won. Taxpayers are willing to overlook the obvious - they get little in return for the money they spend on lottery tickets, just as it will be if a casino locates here.

An increase in the tax rate would be a more honest way for the state to raise revenue.